Springborg predicts an early election

State Opposition leader Lawrence Springborg says it is likely the Labor government will call an early election next year.

Speaking yesterday at a breakfast in Mooloolaba for National and Liberal Party members, he said it might happen in the first quarter of 2009 while the newly amalgamated non-Labor party was finding its feet.

The Liberal National Party of Queensland could form as soon as July, he said.

“This is about renewing, recrafting politics in Queensland to give the people in the state an alternative,” he said. “We now have a very strong commitment from the majority of members to come together as a single party, and I look forward to July when that will all come about.”

The member for Maroochydore, Fiona Simpson, joined Mr Springborg to outline their water policy for the Sunshine Coast.

They would build a large desalination plant at Bribie Island, scrap the Traveston dam and provide incentives to install more efficient rainwater retention systems for every house.

“The people of this region are very concerned about 80% of their water going to Brisbane,” Mr Springborg said.

“You can’t blame anyone who lives on the Sunshine Coast for feeling like this, with dams that are overflowing at times, and when we have sufficient water to look after the Sunshine Coast in the foreseeable future.

“People rightly feel aggrieved having to pay more just to plug a gap somewhere else.”

Mr Springborg said Bribie Island was the idea site for a desalination plant to feed the coast.

“This is also one of the six sites which the state government is looking at, but rather than having dotted desalination plants all up and down the coast, decide on one,” he said.

Ms Simpson said it was ludicrous that Sunshine Coast residents would be on water restrictions in a couple of months and she accused the Labor government of being “negligent”.

“The state government has done no preparation for the Sunshine Coast, about what they’re going to face,” she said.

“We are about to face water restrictions by the end of the year, an escalation in the cost of their water and a lessening of water security.

“I’ve written to the deputy premier Paul Lucas, I have approached him, I said, ‘what are you doing to prepare our area?’

“He’s not answering our correspondence, they’re not advising businesses that are water dependent here about what is going to happen, they are being negligent.”